Ricky Castillo

About me

I didn't start out thinking about systems.

I started in visual design and animation, caring mostly about how things looked. That changed once I saw how often clean interfaces still failed in practice. If the logic underneath breaks, the visuals don't matter.

Over time, I found myself pulled toward the parts of design that are less visible but more important. Structure, flow, and how a product actually holds up when people are using it under pressure.

That shift pushed me toward systems design, the part of the work that keeps everything else standing when conditions aren't ideal.

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How I work

Most of my experience involves a blend of digital tools and real-world environments. At Wayfair, I worked on mapping systems for a large retail store, designing for people who were moving, distracted, and trying to get their job done quickly.

At Constant Contact, I focused on internal tools that helped sales teams navigate complex information during onboarding and day-to-day work.

I tend to enjoy projects where things are a bit messy. Tight constraints, imperfect systems, and real usage conditions usually lead to better decisions than working in ideal scenarios.

What I care about

Clarity over cleverness
If someone has to think about how to use it, it's not done yet.
Design that holds up in the real world
Glare, noise, time pressure. The work has to survive outside of ideal conditions.
Things that can actually ship
Solutions that teams can build, use, and maintain without friction.

Skills & tools

Design Systems

Component libraries, tokens, documentation, governance

User Experience

Information architecture, user flow mapping, interaction design

Prototyping

Figma, high-fidelity prototypes, design-to-dev handoff

Technical

HTML, CSS, retail systems, operational workflows